1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus, an imaging method and a computer program. Specifically, the present invention relates to an imaging apparatus that detects a predetermined feature from a face image of a person as a subject, acquires a normalized face image by normalizing a position of a face, an angle, and a size of the face in accordance with a position of the face feature, captures the image of the face of the subject at the moment a particular expression is detected from the normalized face image, and thus performs a photographing operation at the moment the face of the subject changes to a predetermined expression at a high automatic photographing accuracy level. More specifically, the present invention relates to an imaging apparatus automatically performing a photographing operation upon a predetermined image contained in the captured image of the subject satisfying a predetermined condition, wherein if the particular image failing to satisfy the predetermined condition is detected in the captured image, the imaging apparatus prompts the subject to satisfy the predetermined condition by notifying the subject that the photographing operation is performed in response to a satisfied predetermined condition.
2. Description of the Related Art
Imaging apparatuses capturing still images, such as a digital still camera, a digital camera recorder, etc. are currently in widespread use. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-56387 discloses an imaging apparatus that automatically photographs a subject if a smiling face image is detected in a captured image of the subject.